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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22358602">Season 15, but make it Chestervelle: Purgatory</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TexanRanchGirl101/pseuds/TexanRanchGirl101'>TexanRanchGirl101</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Season 15, but make it Chestervelle [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Brotherhood, Dean Winchester Deserves Better, F/M, Hugs, Purgatory, Resurrection, Reunions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 09:33:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,788</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22358602</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TexanRanchGirl101/pseuds/TexanRanchGirl101</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This is part one of a five part series. Each part will be one place Jo harvelle could be, and how it could be worked into the story for her to come back in season 15. This one is purgatory, it is a re-write of episode 9 where Jo has been in purgatory this whole time and has become friends and roommates with Benny. She's proven surprisingly resourceful and is doing well there, but is very happy to see Dean again. Additional chapters for all five parts will be available upon request, I just want to see which version people resonate with before I go too far down the rabbit hole with any particular one. The subsequent parts will be, in no particular order, Heaven, Hell, the veil, and the big empty.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jo Harvelle/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Season 15, but make it Chestervelle [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609459</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the purposes of this rewrite the leviathan blossom is prettier than it was in the show because it was kinda gross. Also the Sam and Eileen parts of the episode remain the same, the below is a rewrite of the Dean and Cas parts of the episode. So it is best read after having watched the episode. I hope you enjoy, please leave a comment with requests and\or suggestions for future chapters.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I mean how the hell are we even supposed to know what we’re looking for here? You know Michael could have done us a solid and drawn us a picture” Dean said in the midst of the darkened woods of purgatory. “You know of all the time I’ve been in purgatory I’ve never seen a bloom of any kind” Castiel responded. “Yeah. Exactly” Dean said irritated, there was a lot of ground to cover and this was not going to be an easy task.
</p><p>
“Well if we see it we’ll know, it’s likely to be the only flower here” Castiel reassured. “Alright, maybe we’ll run into Benny, he’s probably king of this place by now” Dean mused checking the remaining time on his phone. “Okay, let’s split up” Castiel looked stunned and annoyed that he would even suggest it. “What!” Castiel barked. “you go that way, I’ll go this way” Dean explained, ignoring Castiel’s petulant tone. “We’ll meet back at the rift, alright? We’ll cover more ground, we’ll better our odds” “Yeah, we’ll also improve our odds of getting lost or killed” Castiel responded in a condescending tone “Come on”. Dean shrugged and followed as Castiel lead the way through the woods of purgatory. Neither realized it at the time, but a nest of vampires had caught their scent. </p><p>As they walked in silence and Dean worried about his brother the vampires formed a plan to surround them, one jumped out at dean going for the jugular and Dean cut his head off with a machete without missing a beat, more swarmed Castiel and he threw one back with a wave of his hand, but another tackled him to the ground. Dean moved to help but three more came at him. He thought for sure they were done for but then one of their heads fell to the ground and he saw a familiar face where the head had been. </p><p>Benny Lafitte in all his glory. He smiled and nodded to him before swiftly going about the task of killing the remaining six vamps. Cas and Dean got in a couple kills each, but Benny did the lion’s share of the decapitating and when it was done he said, “what in the Sam hell are you two doing back here?” Dean laughed as Benny helped him up after the fight and said “Damn it is good to see you” he hugged Benny and clapped him on the back. “You too brother, but I can’t imagine you’re here for a reunion, so what in tarnation is going on?” “Well now that I say it out loud it’s kind of embarrassing, but we’re looking for a flower” “A flower?” Benny scoffed “Yeah I know, it’s an ingredient for a spell, a leviathan blossom”  Dean really didn’t know how he would even begin to explain what the spell was for but luckily he didn’t have to. “A leviathan blossom?” Benny chuckled, “well I’ll be damned, I’ve got one of those back at my house, come on brother, you can tell me about this spell on the way” he chuckled, clapped Dean on the back and starting heading the other way. </p><p>Dean had the world’s most confused look on his face and faltered for a minute before following after Benny “wait…what? Your house? You’ve got a house?” Dean asked. How in the Hell had he managed to build a house in purgatory, when he was here he barley had the time to breathe with all the fighting, and never mind the time, where did he find the supplies. “Eh, tree house technically, but yeah. My roommate built it years ago, long before we met. She’s a friend of yours actually” Castiel interjected “Dean doesn’t have any friends in purgatory” Who could he possibly mean, granted he mad plenty of dead friends, but not many monster friends, or female friends for that matter.  “Relax angel, she’s not a monster. Besides, he has me” Benny contended baiting Cas, who was clearly about to take it. “Alright” Dean said sternly and then turned back to Benny “What friend?” he asked  “Miss Joanna Beth Harvelle” </p><p>
Dean and Cas both stopped in their tracks stunned into silence. After a moment Dean was the first to speak “What?....how the….what?” There were so many thoughts and feelings rushing through his head he couldn’t make sense of em. Mostly worry about if she was okay here and joy that he would soon see her again, but it was all under such a layer of confusion. “She was killed by hell hounds, but she hadn’t sold her soul, if not heaven she should’ve gone to hell, but purgatory shouldn’t have been an option” Castiel questioned. “Wait, you thought she might be in hell and you didn’t tell me?” Dean barked out absolutely furious that he would keep, yet another, secret. Particularly one that put a woman that he loved in danger, again! Damn this was getting to be a pattern. “whoa hold on now, you can talk to her about this yourselves when we get there, it’s not much further, up the hill, by the stream. Watch yourselves though, she booby trapped the place all to hell. I’ll use the walkie talkie when we’re in range, she’ll let us in.” Benny explained. That sounded like Jo, resourceful, resilient, clever as s as lol get out, and maybe just a little overzealous. “Okay, hang on, you guys live together? I mean how did you even meet?.....wait….you guys aren’t…..” Dean implied, he had no right to be jealous of course, they weren’t together and, he’ll she was dead, but he was still pretty sure he’d have to kill Benny if it was true and he liked Benny. “What? No, get your head out of the gutter.” Oh thank God...even if he is a dick “She’s young enough to be my granddaughter. As for how we met purgatory’s not that big a place, I got word of another human and I went lookin, turned out she couldn’t bust me outta here, but still, she’s good people. We been roomies goin’ on five years now.” Dean did his confused blinking thing trying to wrap his head around this weirdness “um, okay….well, how is she?” “See for yourself” Benny said pulling out his walkie talkie “Jo, come in Jo, we’ve got company, friendlies, come in” “Friendlies? You sure about that?” Jo asked over the radio in a groggy voice. “Just get down here and disarm the traps” “Alright, alright, gimme a sec” Jo responded, and a light came on high in a tree near where they stood. It really was a tree house, like a full on swiss family Robinson tree house in the middle of purgatory. Dean could see a stream nearby and a bucket on a rope, the whole nine. Then he look back to the tree and saw the silhouette of a woman about Jo’s size climbing down the tree, she turned and started pulling levers and things, pretty complicated system from the look of it. Then she looked up and it was Jo, she looked the same as the last time he’d seen her, well almost, her hair was darker, she was a little more muscular, but still feminine and he could see a few new scars on her arms, but she hadn’t aged, she was as young and as beautiful as the last time he’d seen her. Exactly the same and yet somehow different. </p><p>Then she saw him, and it looked like she’d seen a ghost even though she was the dead one. That would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so damned tragic. Nothing like knowing ten years had passed and not seeing it on her face to remind him how young she died, how much potential wasted. “Dean?” he saw her say his name more than heard it, she was still too far away, he took several steps forward before he realized what he was doing, and Benny grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him back hard “You lost your mind?” even as he said it a rigged up knife sliced his arm, would’ve hit something more important if not for Benny “I told you it was booby trapped” Jo quickly finished the disarming procedure and radioed Benny “All clear, he okay?” “I’m fine” Dean hollered in the direction of the wallow in Benny’s hand. He was desperate to talk to her, to get closer. “You’ve gotta hold the button down for it to work, just follow me. Walk straight, it’s armed in sections” Benny said leading the way to the house. Dean and Cas followed Benny to the base of the tree where Jo was waiting with a shotgun. “Everybody good?” Jo asked as they crossed over a line “Yep, reset” Benny said, and he and Jo started releasing levers and switches. Jo turned to Dean neither of them really knowing what to say, both just staring in complete wonder. 
</p><p>
“How are you here?” Cas asked. “uh, long story, how are you here?” Jo responded concerned. Benny started climbing the ladder to the tree house and Jo motioned for the boys to follow. “Our story isn’t exactly short, but to summarize, the archangel Michael opened a rift to this dimension so that we could find an ingredient for a spell to trap god” Cas replied. “Like god, god?” Jo asked securing about nine locks on the door behind them. “The very one” Dean answered with a smile, after a short pause she smiled and said, “it is really good to see you….even under seriously weird circumstances”. Dean chuckled and replied “Yeah, it’s good to see you too” he moved to hug her, and she got on her tip toes to put her arms around his neck. He didn’t know why, but he was surprised by the fact that she felt…solid, warm. She was alive and well here, maybe. he pulled away, but left his hand on her back “You okay? I mean this is a hell of a place you’ve built, but it’s still purgatory” “Yeah, I’m good.” She replied with a chuckle “Built this place my first year here, little by little, it’s not much but it’s better than tying yourself to the tree itself to keep safe while ya sleep. I know the traps seem like a little much, but I’ve caught or killed at least one on sixty-seven of the eighty-three. Hey how’s your arm by the way?” Damn those were impressive numbers. To think he was worried about her hunting on earth, she made a damn home in hell and shot the ass off anyone who tried to break in “Oh, yeah, uh, it’s fine, just a scratch. How did you even find the materials for this place?” Dean looked around damned impressed, it was structurally sound, a good shelter, but more than that it was homey...nice. “Yeah, everything people have on them when they die makes its way here, usually it’s not much, wallets, phones, weapons and clothes, but sometimes you’ll get hikers with packs or students with books. One guy blew himself up and brought his whole damn RV here. Got the know-how from the books and some of the tools from the campers, figured the rest out from there. The stream’s freshwater, you sure you don’t need that cut cleaned?” Dean appreciated the consideration for his well being, to be honest that had been rare lately. “No, no, I’m good” Cas broke their silent eye contact by repeating “How are you here?” “oh, yeah, uh, well there was some debate as to whether I should go upstairs or down based on a technicality. I lost consciousness from the blood loss from the hellhound wounds, but it was the explosion that actually killed me so, up or down was kind of up to the reaper. In my case, death himself took an interest. I guess he figured if I went to hell they’d use me to get Sam to say yes to Lucifer, and if I got into heaven he’d never hear the end of it, so he marked my soul, and put me here.” “Marked your soul?” Dean asked angrily. He hated that her being here was because of him and Sam, in more ways than one since if it hadn’t been for them she wouldn’t have died in the first place. “Yeah, I don’t know what it means either, ‘cept the human portal won’t open for me. What’s this ingredient you’re here for?” She said changing the subject clearly uncomfortable talking about her death. “Leviathan blossom” Benny said pointing with a knife to what looked like an orchid in a painted flowerpot. “You have a houseplant? In purgatory?” Dean teased. “Yeah, well there’s not much to decorate with around here, but I am a woman, we make do” like Dean could ever forget about her being a woman, he smiled and laughed lightly at the joke, but Cas was all business, he went over to the pot and picked it up, “Thank you, we need to go”. Dean was about to stop him when Jo interjected “Sun ups in a couple hours, be a hell of a lot safer in the daylight and we’d be happy to lead you back in the morning. ‘case you didn’t notice it’s a full moon, and we’re deep in werewolf country.” As if on cue a trap went off and there was a cry followed by an animalistic snarl. Jo and Benny both grabbed guns and flashlights and poked them through the windows they’d un-shuttered faster than you could see. “He’s stuck good, not worth the ammo” Benny whispered over his shoulder. Jo fired and Benny glared, she shrugged her shoulders and shot back “He was in pain. ‘sides he’d have drawn the rest of the pack” After all this time here she was still merciful, still kind. He admired it, but he couldn’t help still wanting to save her, even if she was doing remarkably well under the circumstances. “Couple hours it is” Dean conceded “Cas’ you think the rift would let her out?” Benny looked at Dean “Benny too?” Dean added quasi apologetically. Cas thought a moment “Ordinarily I wouldn’t think it possible to cross over with physical items rather than souls, but Michael opened the rift for us to retrieve something that doesn’t have an earthly counterpart, so it’s possible that physical manifestations of bodies from purgatory could cross over, whether they’d regain function I couldn’t say” Benny’s face cracked wide with a good ok’ southern boy grin and he proclaimed. “Well, Hell that sounds like a better shot than I’ve had in years, what do you say kiddo? Wanna take a shot at it?” He asked Jo. “Hell yeah I do” Jo answered instantly, grinning at Dean. What a relief, given the last time Benny was in purgatory with Sam he was worried he’d have to fight him on it. Though if it didn’t work out for Jo to come back and really be alive and intact he’d never forgive himself. He hoped Cas was just being cautious when he said she might not regain normal function. “Good, well now how are we gonna kill a couple hours?” Dean implied. “Well it sounds like you’ve had an eventful ten years, why don’t you fill me in? Where’s Sam?” Jo asked. </p><p>The sun was just beginning to peak over the hill when Cas interrupted Dean and Jo’s conversation with “sun’s up, let’s go” Dean looked up like he had no idea any time had passed. Of course he was worried about his brother and wanted to get back, but, if he was really being honest with himself, he also wanted to stay. If this didn’t work it’d be his last chance to see Jo and he didn’t want it to end. “Ah, yeah, let’s get the show on the road” Jo grabbed an old duffel and slung it over her shoulder, it had a quiver attached to it and she grabbed a handmade bow as well and headed down the ladder followed by the rest. “Where’d you say you picked them up again?” she asked Benny “8 klicks northwest, by the cave” Jo glared at Benny a little too sharply “seriously, you went back there again?” “Can we not do this now?” Benny stated and lead the way. Jo looked back at Cas and Dean briefly before following. “Should we ask?” Cas whispered to Dean “Not our business” he said, but he was curious too, if they all made it back he’d ask later, without Cas around. </p><p>They walked in silence for four miles “What’s in the bag anyway?” Dean asked walking a little closer to Jo “Standard go bag, the tree’s pretty well secured, but if they wanna smoke us out bad enough, wood burns. I put in a rope swing that drops off near a boat. Keep the bag packed with the essentials. Same as on earth, weapons, cash, clean pair of panties….first aid kit. The usual” Dean was impressed with her preparation. She really had a knack for ensuring she had the tactical advantage, that should be all he thinks about or talks about right now, yep, definitely do not think about her panties, certainly do not talk about them. Don’t do it. “Yeah, that’s uh, Yeah….now I’m just thinkin about your panties.” Dean admitted. Damn it, but he drew a hearty chuckle from Jo so he guessed she wasn’t mad about it. Cas inquired “How are you acquiring these belongings, the weapons, clothes, batteries, books, I even saw musical instruments.” Good question. “Oh I scavenge, most of the monsters around here kill for food or sport, they leave useful stuff on the bodies lying around for the taking. Whoa, what the hell?” Jo said in response to seeing the rift. “Yup, this is the spot. Cas, Benny you go ahead” Dean said with a nod. “What you want me to test the theory first, make sure I don’t die?” Benny joked “Well alright then brother, see you on the other side” Benny tipped his hat and stepped through. Dean nodded to Cas and he went through with the blossom. Jo headed after him and Dean grabbed her arm. “Hey, wait, just wait a minute” Dean looked at Jo sadly, it’s the best chance he’d had in a long time, but it was also possible that he would be saying goodbye….again. “Just in case this doesn’t take, I got some things I need to say to you” “Okay?” She responded looking up at him confused and concerned. He looked down trying to steel himself for this “I am so so sorry Jo, you never should’ve been in Carthage I-“ “I thought we talked about you not carrying all kinds of crap you don’t have to. Me dying wasn’t on you, and if you can’t bring me back that isn’t on you either. I’ve got a shot and I’m takin it, you should join me before some hell spawn jumps out at us, cause frankly we’re lucky they haven’t already, and we don’t have a lot of time.” She said sweetly and lightheartedly. Genuinely concerned about his being kind to himself and letting go of the guilt. It didn’t have the effect that she’d have hoped. “You remember that? You remember Osiris? Why the Hell didn’t you tell me you were in purgatory? I thought you were in heaven! I would’ve come for you!” Dean shouted, not angry with her but with having missed so much in the last seven years since then. If he’d have just known....“There was nothing you could’ve done! You were already beating yourself up about me dying, do you really think it would’ve helped you to know I was trapped in a nightmare dimension and there was nothing you could do to break me out?!?! I was being kind. Dean.” Jo said sternly, then a little softer “If I’d known that a year later you’d be here too I’d have drawn you a damn map to the tree, but I didn’t, and there’s no way to undo that, so if you wanna keep fighting about this you’ll just have to follow me back to earth” Jo turned and went through the rift.<br/>
“Wait, Jo!...uuuuugh” Dean was pissed as all get out thinking she might not have made it and didn’t let him finish, but he followed her through. Back in the bunker he saw Cas first, and then Jo. Alive and intact. All the new scars from purgatory, same clothes, same body, just….here, on earth. She seemed okay, then she smiled. He went to hug her without thinking about it and she responded enthusiastically. Dean was happier than anyone had seen him in years, he was laughing he was so relieved. She was too, she pulled back and he kissed her, also without thinking about it, which about a half second later, he realized he probably should have, and he pulled away quickly. “um….you’re alive….the both of you. That’s, that’s great” Dean stuttered awkwardly and scratched the back of his head While Benny started with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. “um, we should um, we should do the spell and, and get Sam” Dean said. “Um, yeah, yeah we should, we should do that” Jo responded, “how can I help?” They set about doing the spell with Benny looking at Dean sideways and stifling a laugh the whole time. So hard not to make fun of his buddy liking a girl. They finish the spell and headed to the casino to go save Sam.<br/>
They walked into the casino each armed to the teeth, in Benny’s case armed with teeth. They split up and look for Sam, Dean found him first and cut him free “Where’s chuck?” “I don’t know, he’s close” Sam answered, “Watch out!” Eileen hit Dean over the head from behind and came at him with a knife, Jo pulled her gun, but lowered it when Dean said “Eileen, I don’t want to hurt you” she was pretty out of the loop at this point and didn’t know friend from foe well enough to shoot unless she had to. Luckily Cas tackled her before it became a real issue. Chuck appeared and said, “Hi Dean” and Dean punched him in the face saying, “You know I had to”, Chuck shrugged and threw him across the room “Me too” then he faltered for a moment, looking stunned by what he was seeing “Jo? You’re alive?” Cas got Sam’s attention and threw him the trap ”Sam!”. “Sam, smash it! Now!” Dean implored from the floor. Sam looked confused and filled with doubt. Chuck regained his composure and false bravado and said, “Well Sam?” He hesitated and dropped it on the ground “I can’t. I can’t, I’m sorry” “What?” Dean said thoroughly confused now, the confusion quickly turned to anger as he looked at chuck “what did you do to him?” There was an odd sound, followed by chuck sighing in relief “Oh, yeah. Oh man, that’s the stuff” chuck said moving his healed shoulder around. “What happened?” Cas asked standing back up. “Um, short-version. Sammy lost hope, and now I’m free. Hey, take it easy on the kid, it took a lot to beat it out of him” chuck smashed the trap “No!” Dean screamed “No!....Well what now? You’re not gonna dust us” “Oh yeah? Why not?” Chuck asked nonchalantly. “Because you’re holding out. For your big finish. Yeah, we know about your galaxy-brained idea, how you think this story’s gonna go. Sam got a little look into your draft folder” “Sam’s visions, they weren’t drafts, they were memories. My memories, other Sams and other Deans, in other worlds, just like you. Guess what? They didn’t think they’d do it either. But they did. And you will too.” There was a long pause and then a very confident Dean stated “No. Not this Sam and not this Dean” he walked over to get in gods face and stare him down “So you go back to earth 2, and play with your other toys, because we will never give you the ending you want” “we’ll see” chuck said before he vanished into thin air.</p><p>Back in the bunker Sam went to talk to Dean and Cas who were drinking at the kitchen table with Jo and Benny at the other end. The mood in the room was glum, defeated. “Did she leave?” Dean asked. “Yeah. Yeah” Sam replied with regret. “Sorry” Dean said. He meant that, he wanted nothing more than for his brother to be happy. “That was our, uh, chance….to stop chuck” Sam lamented, and they all exchanged disappointed looks “but what Chuck showed me, what would happen if we trapped him-I believed him. I still do.” Dean didn’t even have to take a beat to figure out his response. “Well that’s good enough for me” Dean said taking another long swig of whiskey. “Okay, so what now?” Sam asked, clearly relieved that his brother wasn’t angry. “Well Chucks gone, but..” Cas added. “he’ll be back” Dean finished. Sam nodded “If we can’t kill him or trap him….” “well then we find another way” Dean assured his brother. That was his job after all wasn’t it? Keep Sammy safe, make him feel better. Didn’t much matter that he had no idea what to do, he had to be strong for Sammy, had to pretend. “It is God….I mean, are we sure there is another way?” Benny asked. He was right of course but why did he have to ruin it, couldn’t anybody just make his job easy for once? “Yeah.” Jo answered immediately “I mean it’s not God god, not the one we think of, not the one from the bible. If he was he’d be omnipotent, he’d know everything, but he didn’t know I was alive. We got the jump on him tonight...just not the way we planned. I don’t think he even saw Benny. If we can surprise him, we can beat him. Right?” Dean smiled at her, finally some help, and a damn good point to boot. “Damn right we can”. “Yeah” Sam said smiling weakly, and clearly only for their benefit “Hey, Jo, not that I’m not thrilled that you’re back, but, well how exactly are you back?” Dean, Benny and Jo chuckled lightly and exchanged looks “Yeah, that’s a long story Sammy. I’ll tell you about it in the morning. We should probably get some sleep” Dean said standing up and heading out “We’ve got rooms for the both of you” he was so glad that they’d found the bunker in that moment, he’d found a home and he could share it with the people he loved. For freaking once in his life the number of people on that list still alive had actually grown. He was so damn sick of losing people. Benny chuckled “Well I thank you kindly for that  brother” then he looked between Jo and Dean, leaned in and subtly joked “but all things considered I hope to god we ain’t sharin a wall” Benny clapped Dean on the shoulder and Dean laughed and chided “shut up”. He never assumes in these situations but just in case he got very, extremely, uncharacteristically lucky and something did happen. Well he’d already planned on putting Benny at the far end of the hall with Jo next to him. Benny chuckled at him and Dean lead his newly returned friends down the hallway to their new rooms.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This is a loose rewrite of 15.10, which I loved the way it was, but there were adjustments needed to include Benny and Jo. So basically we're keeping the Garth of it all and ditching the luck story-line because while hilarious, it's a weird impression to give when they're just getting to know each other again. We're also gonna call in Jody and Claire for the monster fight club.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning Dean woke up to the smell of bacon cooking and stumbled out to the kitchen to see what was up. "Mornin'" Jo said over her shoulder while flipping pancakes. "Breakfast'll be ready soon, there's eggs too, for Sam. He still a health nut?" "ha, yeah, he's worse than ever, when do you have time to do all this?" Dean asked gesturing around the kitchen at the prepared food and newly purchased groceries, her military surplus duffel bag was lying in the corner empty. Jo shrugged casually nearly knocking the kitchen towel off her shoulder "Oh, I don't sleep much. Walked to the store I saw on the way back here last night, pancakes are easy. Wanna wake Sam and Benny?" Dean tried to hide his concern at the 'don't sleep much' comment, but his expression betrayed him as usual. "Uh, yeah" he said and went to get the boys. Meaning that he hurried down the hall banging on their doors and hollering "FOOD!" then went back to the kitchen with Jo "They'll be right out". She couldn't stop laughing at him, it was nice to see her laughing.</p><p>"Aw, you didn't have to make breakfast for us" Sam said walking into the kitchen with Benny not far behind. "No trouble, help yourselves"</p><p>While they were grabbing plates and settling in at the table Jo asked "So where'd Cas go" "Heaven. He's talking to some angels to see if they know anything about Chuck, cause they've always been so freakin helpful." Dean answered while shoveling pancakes in his mouth and proceeding to talk with his mouth full "Oh my God. These pancakes are incredible". Jo smiled, "So where are we when it comes to research? Any weaknesses?" Dean smiled slightly at how quickly she was getting right back into hunting. Sam interjected "Jo, it's really nice of you to offer to help us with this, but, I mean you just got back, are you sure you don't need some time to get your bearings? Catch up on what you missed?" Jo looked like it was the most ridiculous question anyone had ever asked "I'm asking what I missed." She shrugged and looked between the boys "You guys can't handle god without some allies. I don't have a lot of rust on me, trust me living in purgatory counts as hunting. Look, I might not know who the president is or why phones, just apparently don't have buttons anymore....which, how? and why? But I can help." "Damn right you can" Dean responded immediately and reassuringly. "But-" Sam started "Sam." Dean interrupted and it was final. Then he turned back to Jo to explain the situation with Chuck, all about the gun that Sam shot him with, his sister Amara, Michael and Adam. But before he finished that ridiculously long story he got a phone call.</p><p>"Hey Garth" Dean answered. "Yeah, we'll be right there." Dean turned back to the group. "Everything okay?" Sam asked. "Yeah, there's a problem with his cousin, he turned up half dead and no one knows how, looks like he got attacked by a wraith" "A wraith? How'd he get out of that one alive" Jo inquired. "Well he's a werewolf too" Jo's eyebrows shot up "Too? Garth's a wolf? There are werewolf hunters now?" Dean chuckled at her "I'll explain it on the way, we leave in ten" he said and clapped his hand on her shoulder lightly when he headed down the hall to his room to pack up.</p><p>Dean rang the doorbell of Garth's lovely home and was greeted with "Hey! There they are!" and responded with a simple nod and a "Garth." Garth exclaimed "Hey, hey. Come here, you." Before he had time to stop him Garth was going in for a hug "Oh. Okay. Still a hugger, huh?" Dean said uncomfortably. "You know it! You smell so good." Garth proclaimed. "And we're done." Dean said pulling away with a creeped out look. "Ah Sam, it's so good to see you" Garth said hugging him too. Just then Jo snuck in behind Sam and Dean was surprised to see the recognition on Garth's face. "Joanna Beth Harvelle as I live and breathe! I haven't seen you in ages young lady!" "Hey Garth" Jo said chuckling lightly and going to hug him "Long time." "Yeah, no kidding. It must be what? 12 years? I thought you died" Jo looked almost shy at that, she looked down and softly said "Yeah. I, uh, did." Dean interrupted the awkward silence that followed with “wait. How do you two know each other?” “Oh he was one of my best customers at the roadhouse” Jo clarified, having regained her composure "So. You're a werewolf now?" Garth responded happily "Yep, sure am. My whole family is, come meet the kids. Wait who are you?" He said pointing behind Jo in the doorway "Benny. Vampire. Nice to meet you." Dean really wished Benny wouldn't have put it like that and communicated his displease through gestures in Benny's direction while Garth was trying way to hard not to appear uncomfortable with a bloodsucker being in the house where his children sleep. "Oh. well. Nice to meet you too. Come on Jo" He finally said while leading the group back to the kids. "Gertie, say hi to daddy's friends." "Hi" Gertie said and waved, they all responded in kind and Jo waved back. "And these are the twins. This is Sam. I, uh, sorta named him after you." Garth introduced. "Wow. That's, uh Wow." Sam responded clearly quite touched. "That means this one must be..." Dean added pointing to the other baby. "Castiel." Garth corrected innocently. "Yeah." Dean said trying not to make it awkward. "Um, On the phone, you said there was something wrong with your cousin?" Garth responded "Oh, not mine, Bess's. He's, uh Well I think you should see for yourself." He started heading upstairs and Dean shrugged and followed along putting his hand on Jo's back to lead her towards the stairs.</p><p>Bess gestured towards her sleeping cousin Brad and said "I tried to wake him, but he's in and out. He's hurt pretty bad." "This dude's a werewolf?" Dean asked surprised. "Pure blood, like me." Bess answered. "So what happened to him?" Sam asked. Bess looked at her cousin disheartened and concerned and replied "We're not sure. Cops found him down around St. Cloud, in Minnesota." Dean interjected "Those look like knife wounds." Garth corrected Dean saying "That's what the cops thought, too, but they're not. They're from a wraith. Brad whoever did this to him thought he was dead, and they dumped him in a swamp. But he somehow managed to climb out, and the cops found his body by the road. And Bess has been looking after him, but why would a wraith go after a wolf? Hmm" Dean grabbed some candy and said nonchalantly "When he comes to, we'll ask him."</p><p>After they made their way back downstairs Dean pulled Garth aside and told him "You know, I gotta say, aside from pincushion in there this is pretty nice." Garth laughed and agreed "Yeah, better than I ever thought I'd get. I mean, hunting I figured I'd be dead before I'm 40. You know, go out young and pretty. But now I've got a great wife, great kids. I guess sometimes things work out." Dean smiled, nodded, and instinctively glanced in Jo's direction "Yeah, sometimes." He agreed, a little sadly, but with something like hope in his eyes that wouldn't stop wandering over to Jo. "Good, man. You deserve it. You do." Garth smiled at him and responded "Thanks, man." then he chanced a glance over where Dean's eyes had been and added "You too you know." Dean snorted a laugh and walked away snickering "yeah".</p><p>They walked into the kitchen to find Bess warily eyeing Benny, werewolves and vampires had always been natural enemies and him being in the room with her infants wasn't helping matters. The fact that he seemed to be staring at Gertie really wasn't helping, but it wasn't hunger in his eyes, it was just, sadness. An odd almost nostalgic look that didn't make a lick of sense given that he could not possibly have met her. Jo looked between Benny and Bess and suggested "Why don't we go get checked into the motel and you can call us when he wakes up?" "Yeah. Yeah, we'll get checked in, grab some grub, head back when he's awake to talk to us" Dean agreed. "No, I, I never get to see you guys, I haven't seen <em>you</em> in ages" Garth whined gesturing towards Jo "Why don't I go to dinner with you guys? Bess can put the kids to bed." Dean shrugged, "It's cool with me if it's cool with you" he said nodding towards Bess. "Yeah. Yeah, you have fun, I'll call when Brad wakes up".</p><p>"Dibs on shotgun" Garth said walking towards the impala. "No." Dean said walking behind him with one hand on the small of Jo's back and the other fiddling with the keys "We're gonna wanna take two cars, since your not coming with us to the motel" He added, opening the passenger side door for Jo. Sam and Benny piled in the back and they drove off to a local greasy spoon with a picture in the window advertising the best cheeseburgers in Wisconsin. As they pulled up Jo playfully smacked Dean's arm and squealed "Oh my God, there are burgers in this dimension" Over Dean's laughter she excitedly continued while getting out of the car "I can't believe I forgot about burgers" They caught up and enjoyed each others company, around the time their food came Garth, in his usual blunt, yet lovable manner asked Jo "So, how did you die?" Dean felt like he was gonna puke at that, even after Osiris, Dean never stopped beating himself up over her death. If Garth had asked him he probably would've responded 'I got her killed', but Jo, she never felt that way and she responded "Hell hound. In Carthage, during the first apocalypse. We thought we had a shot at the devil so we went to go check it out. From what I gather it didn’t really work out, but we gave it the old college try" she smiled at Dean who had gotten about a foot shorter from shrinking in his seat with guilt. For her to have died saving him was bad enough, but for her to know that he didn't manage to kill Lucifer and make it worth it, well that was worse. "We did kill Lucifer eventually" Sam threw in "Just not for a few more years. I put him in the cage a little while after, but we got out, it got complicated....he's dead now. So is Meg, by the way." "oh. well that's nice" Jo threw in like Sam was a coworker talking about his kid getting into college. She was far too enamored with the concept of french fries to care much at the moment, that or she had just had plenty of time to process all this in purgatory and had come to terms with it. Dean cleared his throat, about to change the subject, but Garth not so tactfully interrupted with "So how did you come back to life?" The waitress chose that particular moment to pop by the table and ask, now with a confused look on her face "you guys need anything else?" Dean waved her off and added "We're fine, just the checks" She nodded, eyeing Garth like he had sprouted a second head and backing away to the counter. Jo chimed in, quickly and just a touch annoyed "Long story, short version. Dean and I ran into each other in purgatory, he was looking for an ingredient for a spell, I helped him find it, he brought me back, same as Benny, that's the gist." Garth looked shocked and confused. He put his hands out in front of him and said way too loudly "Wait, wait, wait, you mean to tell me you've been in purgatory this whole time." The waitress came back with the checks at that, the precise most awkward moment possible, as is their way "uh-okaaaaay, here are your checks. You have a nice night" she walked away shaking her head. Jo laughed humorlessly "Yeah, Hell hound killed me, but I didn't sell my soul, didn't fit either place, so they just chucked me in there. What'do you think is going on with Bess' cousin? Does he just feed on animals or humans too? Is he into anything weird, anything that might get him into trouble?" Garth chuckled and looked at her warmly, with familiarity "Boy, you just haven't changed a bit. No nonsense, all about the hunt. Had to solve the puzzle" He pointed at her with his fork and continued "That's what made you so good, you never could leave the case alone until you had it figured out" Jo raised her brow, smiled and tilted her head in a way that said 'fact check true' then they both laughed about the old times. Garth's phone rang to the tune of 'werewolves of London' and flashed Bess' face. "Yeah, we'll be right there" He said putting cash on the table, the rest followed suit and headed to the cars.</p><p>Back at Garth house the filed into the guest room. To which Brad said "Who're they?" Bess reassured "They're friends." Brad still looked squirrel and scared as well as beat to hell and sliced up "Like Hunter friends?" "Brad, they're cool. Now tell us what happened to you." Bess said half as a scold and half as comfort. "Fell down the stairs." Brad responded an obvious lie. Sam's turn to try being reassuring "Brad, listen, we don't care that you're a werewolf, but you got attacked by a wraith, which is really weird. Now, we're just trying to understand what happened. So help us. Please." Yep, he gave him the full puppy dog. Brad rolled his eyes sounding resentful when he responded "Okay. It's It's a place monsters go. They fight for money." Dean chimed in "Money? Like, real money?" Brad answered a little guiltily "Yeah, real money. Okay? They pay to watch it.They live-stream it on the Dark Web or whatever." Dean held up his hand and interrupted "Wait a second. So So, you??" "Yeah, I needed the cash. Got three baby mamas I got bills." Dean shrugged "This place where is it? I know you don't want to tell us, but..." Brad answered immediately "Belgrade, Minnesota. Old warehouse off Peach Street." Dean looked surprised and added "Well, that was easy." Brad dismissed "Yeah, well, lot of fangs in there. You know, I figure you two walk in, they're gonna rip you to pieces." He laughed and Bess dug her claws into his wound as a way of chiding him for his brutish behavior.</p><p>They went down to Garth's living room to try and come up with a plan. Sam was the first to speak "So what are you thinking, we go in there during the day when no one's around and see if we can corner the guys running it?" Dean sighed like this task was going to be too big to handle "ugghh, I guess. Hell maybe we just wait until the next fight and blow the whole place to Hell". Benny interrupted in his gruff gravelly voice "What and just blow up all the monsters and friends of monsters who had the misfortune of being there on that particular night" Sam surprisingly agreed "Benny's right Dean, they aren't hurting humans, just each other, and we don't know who's gonna be...just, in the building that night." Dean tilted his head to one side then the other, weighing the possibilities. He even opened his mouth to argue a particular point, but then closed it again before adding "Okay, so then what?" "We stake it out" Jo chimed in with her thumbs in her belt loops, casual and unfazed "We go during the day like Sam said, take out the guy that runs the show and whatever muscle he has. With him dead the others will scatter, but we can dig through the back office, see if they keep any records we can use to track down the fighters and check to make sure they aren't hurting anybody. That big a crowd, we should do our due diligence" Dean's eyebrows raised, he was clearly quite impressed at her quick thinking. "Yeah, yeah that sounds like a plan" Jo asked "Do you guys know any other hunters around here? We might need more bodies for this one." Dean nodded "Yeah, Yeah, Jody and Claire are around here, I'll give em a call, see if they want in on the action" he nodded at Garth and said "We'll head over in the morning and take care of it, good to see you man, don't be a stranger" he clapped him on the shoulder and headed out the door. Garth called after "You too buddy, call me after to let me know you're okay" Dean rolled his eyes and chuckled "will do mom".</p><p>When they arrived at the motel they were all dead tired, they headed into the front office and Jo said to the clerk "Two rooms please" Dean looked at her sideways and corrected "You mean three right? One for you, one for me and Sam, and one for Benny" Jo laughed "Nah, Benny and I have been sharing for years, why waste the cash" Dean had a look of 'excuse me' on his face that didn't quite fit the situation. He did not like that at all, but the clerk interrupted with "Two's all we got anyway, there's some conference in town till Tuesday." Jo dug in her pocket for cash and Dean responded with a smug self-assured smile "Perfect, then when Claire and Jody get here in a couple hours we can have a boys room and a girls room. Put it on my card" Jo chuckled lightly and put her hands up in submission "O-kay". They got the keys back from the clerk and headed back to their respective rooms Dean hollered "I'll text Jody the room number, just let her in when she gets here" Jo nodded unlocking her room and Dean turned to Benny "Flip ya for the bed." When they were inside Dean lost the coin toss and ended up on the couch. While Sam was brushing his teeth Dean asked Benny "Hey what was up back at Garth's?" He drawled back "Werewolves don't tend to like vampires, goes back longer than either species can remember, might just be natural." Dean waved a hand to dismiss that "No, no I meant you. Why were you staring at Garth's daughter like that?" he fixed him with an appraising stare and added cautiously "I mean...I wasn't like a hunger thing? I know being back makes it worse and-" Benny might've been offended if it was anyone but Dean who asked, but since it was he just chuckled and held out a hand to stop him from continuing "No, no brother, it's nothing like that. She, well she looked like someone is all. Gracie was her name, beautiful little girl." He looked wistful, nostalgic and so deeply sad. A deep down in the pit of your soul kind of sad you don't come back from. Dean thought it best not to pry any further.    </p><p>The next morning Dean texted Jody 'Hey, you up yet, lets get breakfast before the hunt?' She responded 'gimmie 10 minutes'. In 10 minutes they met up outside their doors and Dean greeted with a smile, arms extended slightly, looking back and forth between Jody and Claire "I, I don't know who to hug first". Jody pointed to Claire and that settled things, he hugged them both and they headed towards their cars. Dean nudged Claire and whispered "How'd you sleep on that lumpy ass couch?" Clarie laughed at him and teased "Dude I got a bed, your roommates must not like you as much as mine" Dean had a comically quizzical expression "Whaaat? Jo took the couch?". Claire shook her head "Nah, she said the bathtub was 'better for your back'. She's a freak, but she's kinda awesome. Sooooo many knives" Claire looked up at him starry-eyed which didn't stop his being concerned. Jody asked "So where we going?" "Minnesota, but there's a diner about 20 minutes up the road that has 'pancake sandwiches' on the menu. Don't know what the hell that is, but I'd like to eat every damn one they've got" Jody laughed. Claire piped in "Can Jo come with us? I wanna ask more about the weird monsters in purgatory" She had the type of dopey grin you couldn't say no to and Jo answered with a laugh "Sure thing kiddo" and headed towards their car, not failing to notice the hesitancy with which Dean's fingers left her back.</p><p>In the car Dean asked Benny "Alright what's with the bathtub thing?" Benny chuckled in the backseat and drawled "It's brilliant actually, you see she get's these real violent nightmares. Almost every night, in a bed you can thrash around, toss and turn, and you're still fairly comfortable, but in a bathtub...nah, you bang your elbow on the sides and you wake yourself up before the terrible part. We didn't have one back in the tree house of course but she slept between the wall and the bookshelf nice and tight like, same effect. Always was resourceful." Dean shook his head, worked his jaw and corrected "That's not brilliant Benny that's, well that's tragic is what that is." Benny smiled sadly in the backseat "I don't know if you've been payin attention to our lives brother, but both can be true at the same time. Hell both <em>usually</em> are." Dean sighed heavily and Sam gave him a sad yet concerned look, he knew how heavily the guilt and worry over Jo was weighing on him though he'd be the first to tell you she was fine. Sam thought he kept telling him that because he wanted it to be true so badly, but he knew if she wasn't Dean wouldn't be either. When she had died it nearly killed him, it was one of the times he was most worried about his brother. Hell right after, they'd gone to investigate a wraith feeding on patients at a mental hospital and Jo's death was the thing she used to taunt him and make him think he was going crazy. He even believed her. Sam knew if she'd been broken beyond repair by her first death Dean would never forgive himself. It hadn't been his fault, but he'd been trying to tell him that for years and doubted it would work now.</p><p> </p><p>They pulled into the diner, put their names down and waited outside for the girls who were just a couple minutes behind. "You know you ran a stop sign about a mile back. I could arrest you for that" Jody joked. Dean laughed "eh well, we got a table can it wait" he said opening the door for her and the others, he followed Jo in and put his hand on her waist. At the table after they'd order Jody asked "Alright, so what do know about this operation?" Sam pulled up the google maps image on his phone and slid it to the middle of the table "Looks like an abandoned warehouse. There are three possible entrances, front door, back door, and the door on the roof if you go up the fire escape. I figure we split up, scope it out, and try to corner the owner." Dean added "Kill anyone you find before this 'Cutty' guy that owns the place, but do it quiet. We don't want them to know we're there. When we do get to Cutty we'll want to interrogate him, so nobody kill him too quick unless you have to." Claire scoffed and asked "Do we even know what he looks like?" Dean got his stern paternal face out and responded with the information he'd gotten from Brad last night "Yes. Teen spirit, we know what he looks like, little bald guy, glasses, doesn't sound like much but he's got protection." The waitress came with diabetes on a plate and Dean got a cartoonish expression on his face "oh my god, come to daddy" Claire laughed at him and teased "<em>Daddy</em> better slow down if he doesn't want a sugar crash in the middle of a fight" Dean looked at Sam who gave a slight nod in agreement. "Shut up." Dean muttered under his breath. As they were leaving the diner Dean hollered to Jody "we'll see you when we get there" he turned towards baby with his hand on Jo's hip, but she turned and followed Jody to her car thinking that was the plan all along so she could continue talking with Claire. Dean just stood there for a minute with his hand still out opening and closing his mouth a couple times, before clearing his throat and tossing his keys a bit on the way to the impala. Sam was smiling at him and once again he muttered "shut up" under his breath.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is getting kinda long so I'm splitting it into two, there will be more, there's a lot to unpack from the purgatory years and , well, it's a Dean\Jo fic, they still have to live happily ever after right????</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
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    <p>They get to the warehouse by 11:00, the trunk of the impala popped open with a loud bang eliciting a "Hey, hey, easy" from Dean. "Sorry" muttered Sam as the ladies walked up, Jo dropped her tactical bag on the ground and unzipped it. She pulled out a few knives and daggers and stuffed them in her boots and jeans, a couple in her sleeves and pulled out what looked like two machetes, but that screwed together like a broom handle. Then she handed a rough looking blade to Claire, something like a short-sword with a leather handle. "Here, it's silver, re-forged with leviathan blood and the venom of a chimera. Toxic to all shifters and anything that feeds on flesh. Use it wisely" Jo said with a wink. Claire could not have looked more like a kid in a candy store when when took the blade and said "oh cool". "Alright, Benny and I can take the roof if you guys want to go 'round back" Jo suggested. Dean looked at Jo with a confused concern thinking they would've gone together, but knowing he had nothing to really base that on besides an innate desire to protect her and keep her close "eh, you know what you guys have been out of the game for a while, Benny why don't you go with Sam to the front, I'll head up to the roof". Benny and Jo's eyebrows shot up, 'out of the game'? they'd been ass deep in monsters for years, this was nothin'. Jody snorted a laugh "Dean they've been hunting monsters full time and living in a tree for years now, I think we want them as aerial support" she said with a knowing nod. Dean sucked his teeth and looked down, grabbing some guns out of the trunk "Yeah, fair enough, Sammy and I'll take the front entrance, stagger it a bit to give them time" he said to Jody and Claire. "Sounds good" Jo said heading off to climb the fire escape. Sam stalked off to the front entrance and Dean trailed behind glancing periodically over towards Benny and Jo who were making quick work of the climbing. Damn, the girl moved like she was part monkey. "You okay?" Sam asked knocking him out of his fog. "huh, yeah. I'm fine, you see anything? Keep watch I'll pick the lock".</p><p> </p><p>They broke in fairly easily and scoped out the halls. They heard a somewhat muffled conversation to the left and Dean signaled Sam keeping his gun aimed in front of him. They made their way to the hallway next to the meeting room and saw that there were about five men there, including Cutty. Too many. Sam locked eyes with Jo on the second floor indoor balcony, she was covered in blood splatter with a dead wraith at her feet. He scanned the rest of the second floor and saw four more bodies, one at Benny's feet. How had he not heard anything? He saw Jody and Claire and nodded to them confirming the plan to advance. He motioned to Jo communicating 'draw out the guards, we'll take out all but Cutty'. Jo grabbed the wraith and dragged him to the edge over where one of the guards was standing on the first floor so the blood would drip near him and alert him to trouble on the second floor. He took the bait and took a buddy. That left three on the first floor. When Dean and Jody shot the two guards on the first floor Jo shot the two on the stairs almost in unison. Dean pointed his gun at Cutty and said with a smirk "Sit down. We need to talk". Cutty's expression failing to fall should've been his first clue that something was amiss, but it was the sound of a gun cocking about an inch from his temple. The was a sixth man behind the door, though he was big enough to count as two "Meet Maul" Cutty said with a cocky smile "He'll show you to your room. Weapons down all of you. Unless you want your friend's brains to decorate my office". Sam, Jody and Claire did as they were told and put their weapons on the floor.</p><p> </p><p>Benny and Jo had the advantage of not having been seen yet. They decided as the carnage would lead them to believe someone was on the second floor that Benny should stay behind to either claim responsibility or kill Maul, whichever he could pull off. Jo went out the window and down the fire escape, then back in through the front door towards where Maul had been leading Dean and the others. Where they kept the cages presumably. He held Dean in a headlock with the gun pressed to his temple, opened the door to a big cage and said in a monotone grunt that seemed all he was capable of "Get in". The others filed in and Maul tossed Dean in behind them, then he shut the door and turned the lock. The very moment he turned the gun away from her friends Jo threw her knife and hit him square in the neck right above C1. Internal decapitation is the term. He was dead before he hit the ground. Dean just looked at her stunned, she ran over quickly to Maul, grabbed the key and let them out. "You guys okay?" she asked nonchalantly but with genuine concern looking over each of them quickly. Dean still just looked stunned, he looked like he was about to gesture, extending his hand and opening his mouth, but then he just closed it again quickly and shook his head "Uh, yeah, we're, we're. That was a hell of a shot." Jo smiled a cocky smile and shot back "Lot of practice" She cocked her head in the direction of Cutty's office "shall we?" she started walking before anyone had a chance to respond and Claire huffed a laugh "Awesome" and she jogged after. Dean shook his head with an audible "ugggh" and ran after them trying to get out in front.</p><p> </p><p>They converged on Cutty's office shortly and Benny met them in time to block his exit. Dean raised the gun he'd grabbed off Maul's body and said "let's try that again shall we?" Several hours later they had gotten as much information out of him as they could and much, much more out of his files. He had paperwork going back a decade for what looked like every fighter that he had ever paid. His files were divided by species and had names, addresses, fight history, and Cutty's personal assessment of how dangerous they were. Like that could be trusted. The Winchesters had been hunting long enough to know that a scrawny frustrated kid can be twice as dangerous as a full grown man and that goes twice for the types of monsters that belong in packs and find themselves isolated. They'd have to go through each file individually and check it out for themselves. The good news was they wouldn't be trolling for cases online anymore, and they might even get there in time to save some lives they wouldn't have if they waited for the papers. Jody interrupted Dean's train of thought with a sigh "well. I'm beat. How 'bout you?" Claire responded before the other "Less beat, more bored. This case was like 10% action 90% paperwork." Jo laughed at that, but Dean rolled his eyes. He'd been called reckless a time or two, but when the people he loved were just like him, well he had to feel bad for all the people who loved him. It's a special kind of hell wanting to protect someone who has no interest in protecting himself. Of course he didn't say that, what he actually said was "Yeah, I starving, I haven't eaten since breakfast. What'do you say we go get some burgers?" Jo looked around assessing and sighed "Uh, you know what, why don't we just pack all this up and look it over back at the motel, we passed a Walmart on the way here, we could get some bankers boxes, be out of her in no time" she smiled an over-tired smile and they did exactly that.</p><p> </p><p>When the last of the boxes was heaved into the car with a huff as the sun was setting Jo wiped the sweat off her brow and looked at Dean. They both chuckled and she admitted "Okay, maybe not <em>no</em> time" "Ha, yeah I guess not, let's just get on the road to somewhere with food" Dean pleaded. "Sounds like a plan. We passed a bar on the way here, looked like it had a pool table, should solve hungry, bored, and sober" Jody teased putting her arm around Claire and squeezing her. "Ha. Ha" Claire retorted. "Yeah I remember that place, some kitschy name like 'the jolly rodger', we'll meet you there" he said guiding Jo to the passenger door of the impala. Jody nodded and started her car as Claire hollered "Hey, I'm gonna kick your ass in pool" Dean smirked and muttered "Yeah right" while opening the door for Jo.</p><p> </p><p>When they arrived at the bar they were all feeling celebratory, they ate and the conversation flowed naturally. They laughed about old times, and how long it would take to sort through all those dusty files. They all had a few and Claire meant it about that game of pool, she lost of course, but they had fun. Then it was Sam and Jo's turn to play, Benny stood by to watch and play next and Claire took the opportunity to grill Dean back at the booth. "So what's with the girl?" she asked excitedly. Dean waved it off and scoffed "oh come on what are we in high school?" Jody chimed in with "eh, no actually I wanna hear about this too." he rolled his eyes "Really??" she fixed him with her mom look "Yes, really. Come on! Dean you haven't taken your hands off her since we got here, there's more going on than a hunting partnership. Tell me what's going on?". He tilted his head back and forth like he was weighing his options, he sighed heavily and finally admitted "Look, it's not like that. We're not...I don't together.. or anything. It's just, it's, well it's like when you're going on a hunt and you know you're gonna need you favorite gun, and you know, you know it's in the trunk, but you start to think maybe it's not, maybe you forgot it" The girls both looked very confused at this point and Dean started talking with his hands "maybe you left it someplace. And it's just this nagging feeling in the pit of your stomach, like maybe it's not really there that gets so bad you pull over, get out of the car, and pop the trunk. Because you've just gotta put your hand on it. You know, you've gotta put your hand on it just to be sure it's really there. Because, you don't know what you'd do....if it wasn't there. It's like that." Jody looked genuinely touched but Claire was the first one to speak "w-wow. Deep" Dean set his jaw "hey, you asked! You don't get to mock me" Jody interrupted "n-no, I think for once, that wasn't sarcasm" she said pointing to Claire "That was actually <em>really</em> sweet. Why aren't you two together again?" she asked genuinely not understanding. </p><p> </p><p>Jo slid back into the booth interrupting their conversation "Well, I'm still awesome at pool, so that's good to know. What'd I miss?" she asked looking between them clearly picking up on something. "We're bugging Claire to tell us about some boy" Dean mocked. Jo got a mischievous glint in her eye and joined the pretend mocking with legitimate enthusiasm "ooohh, who's the boy?" she said oddly giggling and finishing her whiskey "aw man, 9 years of sobriety really does a number on your tolerance" Dean feigned a pained expression "Ugh 9 years, I don't think I've gone 9 days since I was Claire's age". Jo was still giggling and leaning over funny, he head brushed against Dean's shoulder before she got her bearings and got back upright. Dean looked her over and decided "Uh, why don't we get you back to the motel before you puke? Hm" Jo, bringing her hand to her forehead agreed "Yeah, that's probably for the best". They got up and he steadied her. He hollered over his shoulder to Jody "Can you drive the guys back?" "Yeah, sure thing", she responded smiling and giving him a thumbs up. Claire said "good luck" in a mocking sing-songy way. He rolled his eyes at her and bit out "Shut up". </p><p> </p><p>They walked out to the impala with him practically holding her up and rode most of the way back to the motel in comfortable silence. Well comfortable classic rock anyway. She was falling asleep in the car, partly from the booze, but mostly just from the fact that she hadn't slept well in longer than she cared to admit. Though what she'd hate to admit even more is that it had gotten worse since she'd been back. She'd made a home she felt almost safe in in a hell dimension for monsters and what did that say about her? No, she'd pretend she wasn't struggling for as long as she could, but in her drunken state she couldn't quite make herself pretend she didn't finally feel safe enough to sleep alone in the car with Dean driving. Part of her wished that they could just keep going and she could get some rest with her head on his shoulder. That's when they pulled up to the motel. "Hey, come on, we're back." he said nudging her gently and getting out of the car. She tried to shake the sleep out of her head and get out of the car into Dean's waiting arms while he chuckled under his breath "You, a light-weight, never thought I'd see the day" she put her arm around him for support and retorted "I'm not a light-weight, I'm just rusty. I'll be drinking you under the table in no time" She looked up at him and he quirked his brow, she shrugged and tilted her head "Yeah okay, maybe not you. I'll be drinking Sam under the table!" She said with renewed determination pointing a little too enthusiastically and stumbling. Dean caught her and pulled her close to his chest. She nuzzled in a little before her judgement got the better of her and mumbled "mmm, you feel good". Dean stopped in his tracks, hesitated for a minute and then moved his hand to her hair and admitted "Yeah. Yeah, you too" he kissed the top of her head "Come on, let's get you to bed". They walked up the stairs and got to her room, he was fishing his wallet out of his pocket when he realized "Aw crap, I only have my key. You got yours?" Jo shook her head and lied "No, no, Jody has the key" she didn't want to be alone, but she'd never admit that. "Alright, well, we'll just hang out in my room till Jody gets back then." </p><p> </p><p>They went to his room and he told her to lie down on the bed that was Benny's, hell it was a motel bed they'd flipped for, he figured it was his turn to sleep on it and he could share if he wanted. Normally, he'd have taken the other bed or sat at the table until Jody got back, but he was bleary eyed tired and didn't want to take up both beds, in case the guys got back before the girls. He'd be good, stay on top of the covers, the whole nine. Apparently they were both pretty tired because they conked out immediately and when Dean woke up it was light out. Sam was in the other bed, Benny on the couch and Jo....with her head on his chest, sleeping soundly, his arm around her waist. He couldn't help the smile that crept over his face, god she was beautiful. He gently kissed her forehead. She woke up and looked around confused, he pressed his finger to his mouth 'sshhh' and he gestured towards outside. When the door closed behind them he tried to start the conversation "Hey, uh, so this was a little weird to talk about last night with you not being, ya know, vertical, wouldn't have been right of me to come on to you then, but-" she interrupted him with a kiss, she was never one for awkward conversations either and when they could be avoided with action why not? He grabbed her face with one hand, and stepped toward her, backing her up against the wall and pressing into her. She moved her hand to the back of his neck and ran her fingers up into his hair before pulling back. She took a second to open her eyes before looking up to meet his and said in a breathy voice "Is that what you wanted to talk about?" Dean took a minute to wipe the startled look off his face and process what was happening. "uh, yeah, yeah that was pretty much it." he smirked and quirked his brow at her "I like your way better though" he said leaning back in. "Yeah" she giggled. "Oh yeah" he chuckled back.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>That's all for now folks. There's definitely more story to be told in this 'verse, but I want to see where the show goes a little bit more so I can stay in line with it and just weave in their relationship, Benny, and some purgatory backstory (fair warning that part gets a little dark, you can probably already tell where it's going). I'll be adding either the veil or the Hell first chapter next since both are set earlier in season 15. Y'all pick your favorite, Hell has Charlie, but the veil backstory is super cute. Leave your preference in the comments. Thank you for reading :)</p>
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